BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 403 



Synpelmous, anisodactyle or syndactyle Coraciiformes with palate 

 desmognathous, and with the dorsal pteryla not forked between 

 shoulders; myological formula AX or AXY; carotid arteries 1, 2, or 

 none; flexor tendons usually of type Yb, sometimes (in Bucerotes) of 

 type Ya, or (Ealcyones, part) type IX ; hallux connected with flexor 

 perforans digitorum, not with flexor hallucis. 



KEY TO THE SUPERFAMILIES OF ANISODACTYLE. 



a. Metasternum 2-notched (the notches shallow); gluteus primus muscle absent; 

 spinal pteryla not defined on neck (no lateral cervical apteria); flexor tendons 

 of type Va (as in Pamprodactylae and Macrochires); intestinal convolutions of 

 type VII (as in Upupse); adult downs absent; base of remiges not overlapped 

 by coverts; well-developed eyelashes; skeleton highly pneumatic; bill highly 

 specialized (surmounted by a more or less elevated, usually hollow, accessory 



piece or "casque") Bucerotes (extralimital) .« 



aa. Metasternum 4-notched (the notches deep); gluteus primus muscle present; 

 spinal pteryla well-defined on neck (lateral cervical apteria present); flexor 

 tendons not of type Ya (usually of type V6) ; intestinal convolutions of type VI ; 

 adult downs present (absent in Momoti); base of remiges overlaid by coverts; 

 no eyelashes; skeleton not highly pneumatic; bill not highly specialized. 

 b. Two carotid arteries ; no spinal apterium. 

 c. Myological formula AX; basipterygoid processes and aftershaft absent. 



Halcyones (p. 403) 

 cc. Myological formula AXY; basipterygoid processes and aftershaft present. 

 d. Metasternal notches (at least the external pair) closed (converted into for- 

 amina); caeca absent; oil-gland nude; bill more or less decurved; tail 

 more than three-fourths as long as wing, excessively graduated; tarsi 



stout, the acrotarsium distinctly scutellate Momoti (p. 450). 



dd. Metasternal notches open; cseca present; oil-gland tufted; bill straight; 

 tail less than three-fourths as long as wing, nearly truncate; tarsi slender, 



the acrotarsium non-scutellate ("booted ") Todi (p. 441). 



bb. Only one carotid artery (the left); a spinal apterium. 



Meropes (extralimital).6 



SuperfaiTiily K^L.C'i'ONEIS. 

 THE KINGFISHERS. 



=Alcedinidse Bonaparte, Prodr. Syst. Orn., 1840, 6. — Lilljeborg, Proc. Zool. 



Soc. Lend., 1866, 16. 

 =Alcijon€S American Ornithologists' Union, Check List, 1886, 209. 



a =Appendirostres Blyth, Mag. Nat. Hist. (Charlesworth's), n. s., ii, 1838, (598?). 

 >5ucerof es Fuerbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567 (includes Upupae).= 

 Bucerotes Scebohm, Classif. Birds, 1890, pp. vii, xi, 22; Sharpe, Rev. Classif. Birds, 

 1891, 80; Hand-list, ii, 1900, 63.=Bitcerotidx Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 

 404; Fuerbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, and of most authors. 



The Bucerotes comprise a single family, Bucerotidaj (Hombills) peculiar to the 

 Ethiopian and Indian regions and the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan Subregions. 



b = Meropes Fuerbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567; Sharpe, 

 Rev. Classif. Birds, 1891, 80; Hand-list, ii, 1900, 72. 



The Meropes comprise a single family, Meropidae (Bee-eaters), peculiar to the 

 Ethiopian and Indian Regions and Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan Subregions, 

 with one species reaching the southern Palaearctic Region and another in Australia. 



